Pakistani immigrant and Lincoln High School graduate recounts living on West 15th Street
Junaid Anwar recounts times living on West 15th Street in Coney Island, where he moved as a 14-year-old along with his mother and brother to join their father in America. Although a Pakistani immigrant, he quickly adapts to the American way of life ...
Content type: Oral History Item
From Tbilisi, Georgia to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Mark Markov's transcript and translation below. Интервью было проведено и записано на русском языке. Читайте транскрипт и перевод Марка Маркова которые расположены ниже.
Tatyana...
Content type: Oral History Item
Osaka-born artist creates sideshow curiosities in his Coney Island home
Born in 1960, Takeshi Yamada is an artist from Osaka, Japan, who moved to Coney Island in 2002. "I didn't choose Coney Island. It chose me," he says. He is frequently seen in a black tuxedo strolling around the neighborhood with his sea rabbit Seara...
Content type: Oral History Item
Came from Puerto Rico to show Coney to her family
Rosa is 58 years old and has lived in Puerto Rico for 33 years. As a child, she lived in Manhattan and would visit her aunt in Coney Island. She observes how Coney Island has changed, mostly how small it is by comparison to back then, and has...
Content type: Oral History Item
Arcade game repairman
Louis Beard grew up in Brooklyn and visited Coney Island with friends as a teenager in the 1980's. He joined the Army right out of high school and worked in immigration where he learned that new citizens had more questions about Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Outside talker at the World in Wax Musee and lifeguard in the 1950's and 60's
Mark Breyer grew up in Coney Island in the 1950's and 60's. He worked in a variety of jobs, from dry cleaning boy to outside talker at the World in Wax Musee to lifeguard on the beach. In this interview he recalls fetching fish for the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Amateur fisherman
Peter has lived in Coney Island for 25 years and is an amateur fisherman. He describes the kind of various kinds of fish he has caught and recalls once seeing seals washed up on the rocks. Generally, he is discouraged about the state of Coney...
Content type: Oral History Item
On her three year photo project
Karen Thumann is a photographer from Oklahoma who came to Coney Island on a recommendation from a workshop instructor. She was fascinated by what she found and quickly secured a grant to fund her return trips in the 2011 and 2012 seasons to take...
Content type: Oral History Item
Family owned the Shamrock Irish House and Eldorado Arcade
Sheila and her family owned and operated the largest arcade in Coney Island, the Eldorado. Her father, his two brothers and three sisters opened The Shamrock Irish House, a restaurant/cabaret/open-air bar, in the early 1940's, and her family...
Content type: Oral History Item
Grew up visiting Coney in the 1950's
Maria recalls visiting Coney Island in the 1950's as a child with her parents. They used to rent all of their beach gear from a bathhouse and then get cleaned up again to take in amusements such as Steeplechase Park. Her mother was too afraid...
Content type: Oral History Item